S.F. suspect in slayings of 5 dodged deportation in 2006

The suspect in the brutal slayings of five people in San Francisco was ordered deported to his native Vietnam in 2006 while in prison for robbery, but the undocumented immigrant remained in California because the Vietnamese government would not take him, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Binh Thai Luc, 35, of San Francisco, was arrested Sunday, two days after the bodies of three women and two men were found in a home near City College of San Francisco. Police say the victims, four of whom were related, were savagely beaten and stabbed.

A source told the Chronicle that authorities suspect the killings were committed over a gambling debt.

Today the medical examiner released the identifies of the dead. The women were Wan Yi Wu, 62, Ying Xue Lei, 37, and Chia Huei Chu, 30. The men were Hua Shun Lei, 65, and Vincent Lei, 32. The house was owned by Ying Xue Lei, a software engineer.

Luc was sentenced to 11 years for a 1998 armed robbery of a restaurant in San Jose, home to the second-largest population of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam. In 2006, immigration officials prepared to deport Luc after his release from San Quentin Prison, but because Vietnamese officials would not issue travel documents, he was freed.

Immigration and Custom Enforcement officials told the Chronicle that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled undocumented immigrants must be released after six months if their home country won't take them back.

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